Real
by Jasmin Kaiba
Summary: My first try on writing Vampire Diaries and my take on the sire bond issue and how Elena and Damon handle it. Damon i confused, hurt and enraged and Elena just wants him to see that her feelings are real. Bonnie's advice becomes invaluable in her mission to get the stubborn vampire to see the light. Mushy, cheesy and fluffy. R&R please


_**Real**_

_**by Jasmin Kaiba**_

* * *

_AN: My very first The Vampire Diaries story, and my take on the sire bond. I'm almost ashamed that this is my first tribute to my favorite pairing, because Damon and Elena's story has had me fixated since the very first season and the beginning of a relationship that promised to be filled with everything I love about such pairings and they actually exceeded my expectations. Kudos to Nina and Ian for having such chemistry._

_So Julie Plec revealed that there indeed is a sire bond and that Damon wants what he and Elena had to be real, Elena knows that it's real. So this is my take on her proving it to him._

_I hope you enjoyed this and will drop me a few lines to share your opinion on my first take on writing this couple._

_Disclaimer: If I ever owned TVD, Damon and Elena would have been together since the second half of the first season and we would all have been put out of our misery a long time ago. But since they aren't, it's kind of obvious that I don't own the show or the characters._

* * *

Reality was a bitter wake-up call for Damon. The bliss he experienced with Elena over the last hours faded and was replaced by a heavy feeling inside his chest that threatened to shatter his already heavily bruised heart. It really was too good to be true. It wasn't true at all. Elena didn't love him. Her affection for him was heavily enhanced and maximized by the sire bond, she obviously had no idea what she was really feeling and he'd taken advantage of that. He'd taken advantage of her vulnerability and when she came to her senses again she would never forgive him, she'd hate him forever.

Even though it never occurred him that Elena might be sired to him and he was as blameless in the situation as Elena herself was, he still wanted to be at fault. Someone had to be in the situation she had found herself in. Someone needed to play scapegoat and he would do it. It would be easier. Eventually she would wake up from her trance.

Tyler had successfully broken his bond to Klaus so it shouldn't be too hard for Elena to break her own bond to him. And when she finally did it would be easier for her if she had someone to blame. His blood had turned her after all, so he was at fault.

Once again he wondered how he'd failed to see the evidence. It was there staring him in the face as Stefan and Blondie had pointed it out. Elena acted on what the sire bond was telling her to do. She took whatever he said as absolute, she strived to make him happy because that made her happy in turn, because of the bond. He told her she could only drink human blood from the vein and her body reacted to his words. She couldn't hold down animal blood, she puked up blood from bags, hell she hadn't even been able to hold down _his_ blood. That should have tipped him off that something was definitely wrong.

But she'd been fine after she'd taken fresh human blood, after she's had her first real hunt. Aside from her changing her opinion on the dress issue at the pageant, everything had been fine. Obviously that too had just been what he'd wanted to see. So he hadn't really expected her to say that she'd wanted to dance with him at the ball and he sure as hell hadn't expected that their innocent waltz by the fire place would turn into a night of fiery passion between his sheets.

Of course there was some catch. There had always been a catch. He'd never gotten the girl, after all. It was the same story as with Katherine all over again. Not that Elena was playing with his feelings, far from it, but history was still repeating itself in some ways. The girl his heart belonged to wanted Saint Stefan, even if she didn't know it this time around.

It might have spared him a lot of agony if he'd just stayed stubbornly in love with Katherine, or with the illusion she'd created at least. Then Stefan could have Elena and everyone would be happy, some way or other. He would be following Kat like a faithful lap dog, Elena and Stefan would be happy, hell Elena might not have been turned into a vampire at all.

_Because she would be dead a thousand times over by now_, a snide voice that sounded suspiciously like Katherine whispered in his mind. If he'd stayed in love with Katherine and left following after her Elena would have been left without protection. Klaus would have won by default and he and Katherine would be dead by now too, no doubt killed by Klaus' little hybrid army. Nobody would have stopped the Original from using Elena as his personal blood bank. A lot of other people would be dead too, starting with the blond terror that had yipped his sensitive ears off just an hour ago. Ric would probably be alive though. He wouldn't have been killed so many times that his ring took over his mind and Esther wouldn't have turned him. Of course Esther wouldn't have even been awake, and the bitchy witch's mother wouldn't have been turned either. The majority of the Originals would still be slumbering in their coffins, including Elijah and Kol, Fin wouldn't have been staked and Sage would be alive too.

On the other side, Stefan would probably still be the 'Ripper' and only the devil knows what havoc he might have wreaked on the world. Not that it would have mattered to Damon. He would be blissfully dead. And if it didn't mean that Elena would be dead also, he would have preferred that outcome. This constant heartbreak was slowly becoming more than he could handle. There was only so much he could take before he snapped and became a Ripper himself, or even worse.

He arrived at the Boarding House before he knew what he was going to tell Elena. Not that it mattered if he rehearsed a speech or not. He would tell her the truth either way and prepare himself to lose her forever as best as he could.

Slamming the car's door more forcefully than he intended he took a deep breath and advanced to the front door. As he walked in he saw her standing by the fire place a glass of blood in her hand and a dreamy look on her face. She was so beautiful.

At the sound of the door opening she looked up and smiled at him. That smile broke his heart. How was he going to tell her that what she felt for him was a lie?

″Hey,″ she greeted softly, the smile on her lips stretching wider as he approached her. ″It's almost dark, where were you all day?″ she asked lightly and his face darkened. Damn his bad luck to nine hells. Didn't he deserve a little happiness in his life? ″Damon?″ she interrupted his thoughts, the look on his face worrying her. ″What's wrong?″

Dragging his hand through his slightly messy black hair, he heaved a sigh and smiled at her awkwardly. He really didn't know how to handle these situations. ″You need to sit down, Elena.″

She looked at him with an eyebrow raised and for a moment he doubted the whole sire thing, but she didn't hesitate and walked to the couch making herself comfortable and patted the place next to her, an open invitation for him. He didn't take it and instead sat in the armchair, not wanting his nearness to affect her somehow, but for most part he knew that he wouldn't be able to have this conversation with her if he felt her so near him. Consciously keeping his hands to himself and his eyes on the floor, he started quietly, ″We need to talk.″ He said it so softly that she wouldn't have understood him if she weren't a vampire.

″I gathered as much,″ she quipped, before his seriousness erased any trace of playfulness in her. ″What's going on, Damon?″

Sighing again, the elder Salvatore cursed his luck for the umpteenth time before he focused on Elena again. ″You're going to hate me for this, but I understand and I won't hold it against you.″

She interrupted him anxiously. ″Damon, you're seriously scaring me here. I'm sure whatever it is isn't as bad as you think. Just tell me. Does it have something to do with Caroline's call earlier?″

Damon nodded and looked at her, drinking in her perfect features as if he was seeing her for the last time. ″Yes. Blondie called to share some news she and my brother discovered with me.″ He could see the question whirling around her mind, but she stayed silent and he continued. ″Apparently Klaus had some input on how things have developed between us recently and he decided to enlighten Blondie who couldn't rush faster to inform my brother. And we both know that Stefan had just been waiting for such an opportunity.″

″Well what is it?″ she asked impatiently, his anxiety rubbing off on her.

″First of all you have to believe I didn't know any of this beforehand or I wouldn't have allowed things to progress as they have,″ he waited for her to agree and continued as she nodded and leaned forward in her seat. ″As it turns out, you're sired to me,″ he said straight out, like whipping a band-aid off and waited for her reaction.

She didn't disappoint. For a while she just sat there staring vacantly at him, but then he could see that what he said clicked and she blinked before looking at him like he'd lost his mind. ″I'm what?″

″You're sired to me and obviously heavily affected by the sire bond.″

Elena stood up and walked to the fire before she turned to her lover of one day. He couldn't be serious. ″That's insane, Damon. I think I would be able to tell if there was a sire bond between us. I mean it isn't just something that you don't notice until it's too late.″

He stood up as well but walked away from her to pour himself a well deserved glass of bourbon. For a few long second he just stood there, sipping his drink while she looked at him. She needed to organize her thoughts and he needed the same. After he was sure that she'd had enough time, he started again. ″It makes a lot sense if you think about it. Things have changed more and more between us since you turned and it's not just the fact that we ended up in my bed last night.″

That made her angry and she glared at him lightly. Far too lightly. ″That's crap and you know it. What we had last night had nothing to do with a sire bond, even if it such a thing exists between us.″

″How else do you explain it, Elena?″ he raised his voice slightly. ″Before this whole mess with your transition, you've made your choice clearly. You chose Stefan and we both know that not even the things that I've compelled you to forget would have changed that if there wasn't something else at work.″

Her determined expression didn't waver for a minute and he continued, not letting her get a word in edgewise. ″Think about it. Ever since that night you've been for too agreeable with everything I said and did. You couldn't hold down animal blood, not human blood from bags, or my own blood just because I said that you needed fresh blood from the vein. Hell, you even fed on me without a second thought. You let me talk you into going to a frat party with the whole purpose of making a few humans your meal. That night we might as well have ended up having sex if the witch hadn't been there. You came to me for help and not Stefan,″ he finished quietly and her frown deepened.

″I don't know how that evaded your attention, Damon, but I've been going to you for help a long time before I ever turned. Even when Stefan was there I sought you out when I needed help. And it's not like I could go to Stefan with my problems this time. He wanted nothing more than for me to live on the animal diet, and I tried, but a taste of human blood before I switched to animal wasn't enough to satisfy my thirst. You know how strong the craving is for a new vampire. I couldn't hold down animal blood because I was starving and my body needed human blood. It needed fresh blood that's why I couldn't hold the blood from bags down and your blood was too strong for my organism to handle in the state it was in. I can now hold down the blood bags without a problem, because my thirst has been sated since that night and since I fed on Matt. I haven't tried animal blood again and I don't plan to do it anytime soon. As for your blood I'm sure I'll keep it down without a problem too. Here, I'll prove it, give me your wrist,″ she moved towards him and he took a step back before shaking his head.

″No. You won't be feeding on me again. I don't need risking a blood bond upon the sire one as well.″

″A blood bond?″ she asked, confused. ″What's that?″

Taking a deep breath he started explaining what he'd wanted to keep from her. ″I told you that sharing blood is personal. It's actually more than just personal. When two vampires feed on each other, they develop a bond, though it's not that easy to establish just like that, it can happen when feelings are involved. And since my feelings for you are common knowledge and the sire bond is affecting your feelings for me, it could happen.″

″But you haven't fed from me,″ she protested, remembering the feeling of security, warmth and definite belonging that had enveloped her as she'd taken in his blood.

″The bond could develop one-sidedly if the feelings are strong enough, and I'm not risking that, not now and not ever.″

″Damon, this is really ridiculous. What we had last night isn't the product of the sire bond, which I doubt even exists between us. The fact that your blood turned me, didn't change my feelings at all. The transition enhanced everything I've felt as a human, but it didn't change anything. Nothing can just make me develop feelings that I didn't have before,″ she said looking into his beautiful eyes, begging him to understand. She knew her feelings for him were real and not just the product of some bond. She's had those feelings for him for a long time, she'd just been hiding them, refusing to acknowledge them, fearing that if she admitted it to herself, or worse yet, Damon, that she would abandon the effort of finding Stefan and ruin everything they've worked so hard and risked so much for. But now that everything was over, Stefan was back, Klaus' plans were effectively destroyed by her transition, there was no more danger and she was free to love him. And love him she did, more than she'd ever loved Stefan, more than she'd ever thought it possible to love. What she felt for him was a love so deep and fierce that it consumed her whole and _that_ definitely couldn't be caused by a bond, no matter how strong.

She just needed to find a way to prove it to him.

″Damon, listen to me,″ she implored, closing the distance between them and framing his face with her hands. ″I know what you're feeling right now, I understand. Things between us have developed so fast that you're confused and a part of you doesn't want to believe it's true because you're afraid you might be hurt again. I get that, believe me. And I know all you really needed was a push in the wrong direction to assume the worst and Caroline and Stefan accomplished just that. But Damon, what I feel for you now, what I've felt for you since a long time wasn't influenced or created by the sire bond. I admit that there is a possibility that I might be sired to you, since your blood saved my life, but that isn't the reason for things happening as they are.″ He attempted to look away, but she didn't let him, locking her big chocolate eyes on his own sky blue irises and not letting him escape her. ″Damon, I love you,″ she whispered slowly, letting him drink in the words and the feeling that was unmistakable in her steady voice.

It was too much for Damon. Everything he'd dreamed of since he'd gotten to know Elena was in those four whispered words. His hopes and wishes all wrapped in her soft, heartfelt confession.

But it wasn't like that. She didn't really love him. Sure she felt affection towards him, and the attraction was a given, but love was not something Elena Gilbert felt for him. That feeling alone was reserved for his brother, the perfect Stefan, who fed on animals because he didn't like causing humans pain. Saint Stefan who turned in a monster in the blink of an eye because his blood lust controlled him instead of the other way around. But no matter what Stefan did, how many humans he not killed but massacred, no matter how much he hurt those around him, he was always forgiven. Elena had been given endless reasons to hate Stefan, endless chances to abandon him, endless opportunities to fall for Damon, but she never did. She run after Stefan and forgave him all his mistakes time and time again, chose the one that hurt her and would continue to do so over the one who gave his everything to protect her. But it was her choice, and Damon never begrudged her it. He would continue loving her and find a way to break the sire bond, so she could go back to loving Stefan. That, Damon could deal with, he'd gotten used to it.

″If you were still a human, Elena, those words would have never made it past your lips,″ he said somewhat bitterly, but she couldn't find it in herself to be mad or hurt as she saw how much those words have affected him, there were tears glittering in his cobalt eyes and she swallowed her own pain, her resolve hardening.

″Maybe not,″ she agreed quietly, looking at her feet and making sure that he didn't see her own tears, it wouldn't do to cause him any more pain. ″But human Elena is dead. She drowned that night, she's not coming back. But that's not what's bothering you. You still love me now, even if you never wanted me to become a vampire.″

″Of course I still love you,″ Damon answered forcefully, his voice full of anguish.

″And that's exactly it, Damon. You accept me no matter what. I becoming a vampire may have been the last thing you wanted, but you're not turning away from me, you're not trying to undone what cannot be changed. You accepted the fact that I'm not who I used to be anymore and you moved on. You did everything you could to help me adjust, you stayed by my side and didn't try to make me something I was not nor could be. You've always accepted as what I was. That's the main difference between you and Stefan. He loved human Elena, and the vampire me is something he just can't come to terms with,″ she stopped talking to reel in her own emotions. Stefan's inability to accept her new self has been obvious from the very first day, and that was mostly the reason why she sought out Damon rather than the younger Salvatore when she needed help in the first few disastrous days of her vampire existence. If she had to live an eternity than she refused to do it fighting for man who couldn't love her as she was. She was sometimes blind in her love and mostly didn't know when to give up, but she wasn't an idiot. She knew a lost case when she saw one. She and Stefan's love one such thing. But Damon... ″I'll make you believe me when I say that I love you, Damon.″

Not giving him the time to say anything that would discourage her from whatever she had planned, she turned on her heel and stormed out of the house, leaving an emotionally distraught and completely confused Damon behind.

The older vampire clenched his eyes shut and after a second whirled around, throwing his glass of bourbon in the blazing fire with all his might. Damn it all to hell! Why couldn't he just once be happy without some sort of freaking complication making his life more difficult?!

* * *

Once outside the Boarding House, Elena put her newly acquired vampire speed to good use and rushed to Bonnie's house. It was getting late and to say that the young witch was surprised by her friend's appearance would be an understatement. But she still ushered Elena in and the two girls sat down in Bonnie's bedroom.

″So Elena, what brings you here?″ asked Bonnie, unused to late night visits from her best friend.

″I need your help, Bonnie,″ the young vampire cut straight to the chase and Bonnie blinked at her for a few seconds before she collected herself.

″Sure. What's wrong?″

Elena pushed her hair behind her ear and took a deep breath. Bonnie suddenly knew that this was more serious than she'd thought. Usually Elena went to Damon or Stefan for anything, so this must be something where not even the vampire brothers could help her childhood friend. But she would do anything Elena needed, that's what friends are for anyway.

″Damon, Stefan and Caroline seem to think that I'm sired to Damon,″ Elena blurted out and it took Bonnie a few minutes before she regained her composure.

″OK, let's see if I get this straight,″ Bonnie started slowly, still shocked. ″You're _sired_ to _Damon_?″

Elena nodded and sighed. ″On one side it does make sense, since it _is_ his blood that turned me. But on the other...″ she trailed off, utterly unsure of what was happening to her and Bonnie felt compassion welling up in her for her friend. ″I mean, I would _know_ if I was sired to Damon, wouldn't I?″ she finished uncertainly.

″You wouldn't if the sire bond wasn't affecting you. That means it's just there, but it doesn't do anything,″ Bonnie explained soothingly, trying to comfort the young vampire.

″But that's exactly it!″ Elena exclaimed. ″It's not so much the sire bond itself they all have a problem with, it's what they think it's making me do.″

″And what is it?″

″They think that my feelings for Damon are a product of the bond, Bonnie,″ the brunette whispered dejectedly and Bonnie frowned.

″But that's ridiculous. You've had feelings for Damon for a while now, long before you ever turned.″

″Yes,″ Elena nodded weakly. ″But I still chose Stefan that night I drowned. And now that Stefan and I are broken up because of my feelings for Damon, they think that the sire bond is making them stronger than they are.″

″Well is it?″ Bonnie asked what nobody else had and Elena felt glad she had come to her best friend for help. Even though Bonnie disliked Damon a lot and would surely prefer for Elena to be Stefan whom she actually liked, just like Caroline, but unlike the blonde, the witch wouldn't try to influence Elena in any way and just wanted her friend to be happy. If that meant that she would be dating Damon in the future, so be it. Bonnie wouldn't like it, but she would understand.

″No!″ Elena denied vehemently. ″My feelings have been all over the place since the transition and they've intensified so much that I'm overwhelmed most of the time, but they didn't change!″

Bonnie nodded sagely and looked at her best friend. ″Alright. Now don't get this wrong Elena, I'm not judging nor am I jumping to conclusions, I'm just asking, ok?″ Waiting for the young vampire to nod, the Bennett witch took a deep breath. ″If your feelings towards Damon have not changed since your transition, than why are you negating your previous choice?″

For a long minute Bonnie thought that Elena would get angry, but the other girl just hung her head and started crying softly. ″I wasn't honest, Bonnie. My feelings for Damon have not changed since that night, they've only gotten stronger, along with my feelings for Stefan. But my feelings for Damon have been stronger since before I turned. That night, I made my choice out of anxiety and a naive wish for things to go back to like they were before this whole mess started. I just wanted to capture the happiness I've felt in the first few weeks of my relationship with Stefan again. I was afraid of what I felt for Damon and what those feelings meant. I didn't want to end up hurting him even more, I didn't want to be hurt myself, and I wanted a justification for all the effort I've put into getting Stefan back. And I didn't want to hurt Stefan either. Getting back with him was the easy way out of a sticky situation and I honestly believed that once we got rid of the Originals we could get back to those old times, I believed I could love him like I did before.″ she stopped and let the tears fall freely. Bonnie took her friend in her arms and tried to comfort her best she could.

″But I made things worse,″ Elena continued brokenly. ″I broke Demon's heart, I raised Stefan's hopes and I hurt myself in the process more than I hurt both of them together. This must be history repeating itself for them. I'm just like Katherine in the end!″

″No, you're not,″ Bonnie soothed determinedly. ″You've never been, nor will you ever be like Katherine. That bitch intentionally played with their feelings, got Damon obsessed with her and put them against each other. She destroyed their relationship, you did no such thing. You were just unfortunate to fall for two brothers who both fell for you in turn. And you're not intentionally hurting them, nor are you playing them. You're just trying to make the right choice. And if Damon is the right choice than go for it. Tell him everything you told me and he has to believe you. Talk with Stefan, get him to understand everything. It may not be easy for him, but he has to let go. Damon would have backed off after you've chosen Stefan if that accident hadn't happened and you haven't been turned. I'm not saying that Stefan has to leave, but he should at least show the same dignity as his brother and respect your choices.″

″I didn't know you were such a diligent Damon supporter,″ Elena smiled through her tears and Bonnie laughed a little.

″I'm surely not a Damon supporter, I just want to you to be happy, and if Damon makes you happy than I won't stand in your way. You deserve all the happiness you can get after everything Stefan's put you through. I may not be a fan of Damon, but I've seen everything's he's done for you while Stefan was off being the Ripper with Klaus. And I can forgive him all the bad choices he's made even if I won't forget them, because I'm grateful that he's been there for you when you needed him the most,″ the witch concluded with a smile and Elena returned it.

″Thank you, Bonnie,″ she whispered sweetly, truly grateful for her friend's support.

″You're welcome. Now get your vampire butt out of her and go get your man!″ Bonnie joked laughingly and laughed along with her, before hugging her best friend tightly.

″I will, thank you again, Bonnie. You have no idea how much you've helped me.″ And with that she was gone in the blink of an eye and Bonnie shook her head, telling herself that she had to get used to Elena now being a vampire too.

* * *

Rushing back to the Boarding House as fast as her legs could carry her – she made it there in under a minute; she was getting the hang on this vampire stuff – Elena took a minute to collect her thoughts and gather her suddenly run-away courage, or maybe she'd left it at Bonnie's in her urgent need to get to Damon as soon as possible. It was not going to be easy, this conversation with him she was going to have, but there was no way around it, she would force him to listen to her if she had to. There would be tears, probably on both sides and there would be shouting, as much as she loved him he still aggravated the hell out of her. And hopefully there would be understanding and forgiveness. She prayed he would forgive her all the heart-break she's caused him over the time they've known each other. And if he did – _when_ he did – she was going to give her all to make him as happy as he deserves.

Steeling herself for the long fight ahead of her, Elena threw the door open and stepped over the trash-hold. He wasn't in the den, but she could hear him upstairs in his bedroom. Luckily he was still the only one there, Stefan was not back yet from wherever he'd gone to, and she was glad for that.

He probably knew she was there, had most likely heard her sprinting up the drive-way, but he stayed shut in his room. She didn't stop think for another second, she's made up her mind and she had to stay focused, or she'd chicken out for sure. Taking the stairs two at a time she found herself in front of his bedroom door. Feeling silly after everything that happened last night, she knocked. For a moment the house was completely still and silent and she feared that he'd slipped out the window while she was climbing the stairs. But then she heard a rustle and finally his voice, exhausted and dark, muttered, ″Come in.″

Cautiously and slowly she opened the door a bit, just enough to admit her body through and slipped inside. He was laying on his bed, on top of the comforter, fully dressed, his dark shirt unbuttoned. One of his arms was behind his head, the other on his chest, holding a book down, on the bed-side table was half-empty bottle bourbon, the same bottle that had been full when she's left the house earlier. She finally moved her gaze to his face and almost flinched at the raw pain in his pale, blood-shot eyes.

″What do you want, Elena?″ he murmured quietly and she had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep the tears from spilling over. In that moment she felt so very undeserving of this beautiful man whose heart she's broken again and again and who still loved her despite everything. Swallowing the knot in her throat and sniffing the unshed tears away, she moved to the bed, tentatively sitting on the edge and folding her hands in her lap.

″I want to talk, Damon,″ she said quietly, locking her eyes on his and beseeching him to listen to her with her gaze.

He looked away after a second, but didn't move from his position. ″If you haven't found a way to break the sire bond while you were gone and done it, there's nothing for us to talk about.″

Damn him and that wretched sire bond. She was going to find that white oak stake he'd hidden away and push it through Klaus' heart with all her might. One more problem on her back thanks to the hybrid Original, as if he hadn't caused enough damage yet.

″Why do you have to be so difficult?″ she asked quietly, giving nothing away of the thoughts she's been having.

That seemed to trigger something in Damon and sat up abruptly and his eyes, flashing with rage she knew wasn't directed at her, landed on her face. ″Well excuse me for being difficult! Am I not allowed to defend myself here, huh? Should I just sit back and listen to whatever you have to say just because you want me to ? News flash, Elena! I may love you, but you can't force me to do anything! And right now you need to leave, because I really can't look at you right now. Either break the sire bond, or stay away from me! I don't want you to accuse me of taking advantage of you when all this is over,″ he added bitterly as he turned away from her again.

″I'm not going anywhere,″ she bit out strongly, giving him no room to argue. ″And you are going to listen to me, if you like it or not. Damn it, Damon! I'm trying to mend whatever is left of our relationship here, and I'm afraid that by the end of our conversation you're going to hate me, and won't forgive me, but I need you to hear me out.″

Giving her a strange look and questioning the validity of the sire bond theory for the first time since she left, he made a hand gesture and turned to fully face her. ″By all means then, say what you have to say.″

For the next twenty minutes, Elena told him everything she's told Bonnie and more, from the moment her feelings for him have changed from affection between friends to genuine attraction and deepened until they overshadowed her feelings for Stefan, to the point where she made her choice and all of the miserable in the process. He listened to her quietly, not interrupting and not saying anything, just looking at her with those beautiful eyes full of pain. At one point she'd started crying again but he didn't move to embrace her or try to comfort her and she could see that he was actually refraining himself from doing so.

A tense minute passed after her long confession and Elena grabbed his hand, squeezing softly as she gazed up into his eyes and decided to use his own words against him. ″I don't deserve your forgiveness, but I need it.″

His blue eyes, full of tears he was refusing to let fall cut to hers and the pain in his expression cleared by a fraction as he slowly and gently squeezed her hand back. ″So it's real?″ he asked quietly, half hopeful, half uncertain and she felt her heart go out to him. If she's ever had any doubt that this man loved her and her alone more than anything else in this world it vanished in that moment.

″Since my parents' death, nothing has ever been as real in my life, Damon,″ she answered through her tears and he smiled, a true, real smile like he had the previous night in this same bed and raised his free hand to her face, tenderly wiping her tears away. ″I love you,″ she whispered and this time he only felt elation and happiness at those words.

″I love you too, so so much, Elena.″

″So you forgive me?″ she asked half playfully, but still serious enough for him to catch on it.

Disentangling his hand her cupped her face gently and smiled down at her. ″There is nothing to forgive, but if you need to hear it, then my answer is yes, I forgive you. I'll always forgive you, no matter what you say or do, Elena. I can't bear being angry with you.″

″Thank you,″ she whispered and smiled as he brought their lips together in a kiss full of not passion nor lust, but love and understanding.

* * *

_AN: And this is it. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. And please tell me, if I should continue writing for TVD or if I suck at it._

_Jasmin Kaiba_


End file.
